It is a time of fear in the face of freedom, a time of an emptying country and swelling cities, a time for the widening of previous roads and the opening of new paths, yet a time when these paths are mined by knowing algorithms of the all-seeing eye. It is the time of the warrior's peace and the miser's charity, when the planting of a seed is an act of conscientious objection. These are the times when maps fade, old landmarks crumble and direction is lost. Forwards is backwards now, so we glance sideways at the strange lands through which we are all passing, knowing for certain only that our destination has disappeared. We are unready to meet these times, but we proceed nonetheless, adapting as we wander, reshaping the Earth with every tread. Behind us we have left the old times, the standard times, the high times. Welcome to the irregular times.

Cut Spying On Americans, Cut The Deficit

The Director of National Intelligence oversees a huge range of spying activities, some of it constitutional, some of it unconstitutional. In the unconstitutional category, there’s the immense electronic surveillance network that’s been set up to grab and sort information from Americans’ cell phone calls, emails, electronic financial transactions, GPS and Internet use – all done without a search warrant.

That kind of Big Brother spying doesn’t come cheaply. According to the 2010 Secrecy Report Card from Open The Government, spending in 2009 for the Director of National Intelligence was $75 billion.

Here’s common ground that deficit hawks and civil libertarians ought to be able to agree upon: Cut the funding for the Director of National Intelligence to pay only for constitutional spying against America’s true foes, and the American people will be much better off.

Upcoming Protest

Liberal Buttons, Political Bumper Stickers and Sweat-Free Shirts

To keep our voices independent of moneyed interests, the writers of Irregular Times have never accepted money for advertising on this website. But we still have to pay the bills! To help cover our expenses, we sell our own designs of liberal activist bumper stickers, buttons and sweatshop-free shirts.